tangotreats
01-15-2016, 11:34 PM
GRAND SYMPHONY YAMATO
by Kentaro Haneda, based on a "basical merody*" by Hiroshi Miyagawa
Tsugio Tokunaga, leader and soloist in the Double Concerto movement
Kentaro Haneda, piano
Kazuko Kawashima, soprano (credited as "scat" but, come on, now...)
NHK Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Naoto Otomo
*Yes, that really is what it says...
First Movement: Birth
Second Movement: Battle (Scherzo)
Third Movement: Prayer (Adagio)
Fourth Movement: Hope for Tomorrow (Double Concerto)
High Quality: H264 video (CRF 18) and FLAC audio @ Level 8 - 1.17gb - https://mega.nz/#!FfxiQCwJ!7ugQ5zyj5Nm62_dH_35M5PiUXh5UQnfrjR4bbZhFbNk
This glorious concert happened precisely one day after I was born. It was held in the Gotanda Kan-i Hoken Hall in Tokyo, on May 4th 1984. Haneda's famous symphony based on the melodies of Yamato has been released a number of different ways, and has the unique honour of receiving not one but TWO separate recordings. The second, a studio recording made in 2009 with the Japan Philharmonic and Naoto Otomo again conducting, is the finest of the two - both in terms of sound and performance quality, but who can resist this premiere performance with the composer himself at the piano?
I consider this Haneda's magnum opus, a very clear sign of his genius, and a poignant reminder of the heights he could have reached had cancer not taken him from us aged only 58.
It is surprisingly uncommon knowledge that this concert was released on VHS and then later on Laserdisc. A transfer appeared on BakaBT in 2012, which was advertised as being a Laserdisc transfer, but sadly it was so poor that even a mediocre VHS transfer would have been preferable. I had always hoped to get hold of a copy of that Laserdisc and find some way to make my own transfer, but that idea was buried very quickly after I discovered, open-mouthed, that a DVD of the concert had been released in 2005.
So, let's get to it. What have you got here, what's different to what you've had before, and why is it better?
The Laserdisc transfer on BakaBT has mono sound - whether that's all that's on the Laserdisc, or something went wrong during the transfer, I couldn't tell you, but the producer tried to compensate by adding a "hiss-reduced" audio track, which is unfortunately worse. A painful and intermittent screeching noise also features.
Within the spoilers, you will find a few comparison screenshots; with my restoration on the left and the BakaBT laserdisc transfer on the right.
The DVD edition does have stereo sound but it's based on the 1985 CD master and that is truly hideous; one of the horrors of the very early CD era bought about, I assume, by immature technology and engineers familiar with analogue recording. The sound passes through a grotesque hall-of-mirrors, changing a dozen times throughout the symphony.
In 2014, the concert was finally remastered from the master tapes.
Now, what you really need is for some enterprising person to get hold of the DVD and the 2014 CD remaster, and somehow combine the two.
Well, that's what I've done.
Unsurprisingly, this task was not as easy in practice as it would appear to be in theory. The CD runs infinitesimally faster than the DVD, so if you line up the tracks in a straightforward manner, synchronisation gradually drifts apart.
Extensive calculations revealed that the CD runs 0.09% faster. I couldn't tell you precisely why this was the case but fortunately the miniscule changes were easy to make; video and audio are now in synchronisation.
The video has undergone some minor tweaking; as one would expect of a production made thirty years ago on analogue videotape for television broadcast, picture quality is rarely ideal. To remedy the situation (at least partially) I have made a slight increase in contrast and drop in brightness, meaning black is now closer to genuine black and not medium-grey. In order to address a strange green-ish tint, I have also done some subtle colour retiming - nudging the hue and increasing the intensity.
Audio is derived from the 2014 "Eternal Edition Sound Almanac" CD release, subtly retimed to fit the video and re-equalised. (The CD features only the music, so the portions of this video that feature speech and applause are the original DVD audio.)
The BakaBT version included subtitles which one could charitably call "rough and ready"; I have very loosely based mine on this translation although I have completely retimed and re-written the text for grammar, clarity, tidiness, and factual accuracy. For example, the subtitles say that Space Battleship Yamato started in 1970, but in fact it started in October 1974. They also indicate that the Yamato franchise turns eleven "today" (May 4th 1984) but according to my mathematics, October 1974 to May 1984 isn't even TEN years. Since I do not speak Japanese, I was working "deaf" so to speak, and I can't verify the accuracy of the translation, but at least it makes sense now and, at the very least, no longer relays completely false information!
Periodically throughout the video, there are cards introducing the performers and scrolls which give their brief biographies. Whilst I cannot translate the text, I contemplated overlaying edited biographies in English, but decided to leave these segments clear.
This is a new upload made on 23rd January 2019. I have retired the "standard" quality version made available on the original 2016 upload. Only the HQ version with FLAC audio remains.
Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy! :)
TT
by Kentaro Haneda, based on a "basical merody*" by Hiroshi Miyagawa
Tsugio Tokunaga, leader and soloist in the Double Concerto movement
Kentaro Haneda, piano
Kazuko Kawashima, soprano (credited as "scat" but, come on, now...)
NHK Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Naoto Otomo
*Yes, that really is what it says...
First Movement: Birth
Second Movement: Battle (Scherzo)
Third Movement: Prayer (Adagio)
Fourth Movement: Hope for Tomorrow (Double Concerto)
High Quality: H264 video (CRF 18) and FLAC audio @ Level 8 - 1.17gb - https://mega.nz/#!FfxiQCwJ!7ugQ5zyj5Nm62_dH_35M5PiUXh5UQnfrjR4bbZhFbNk
This glorious concert happened precisely one day after I was born. It was held in the Gotanda Kan-i Hoken Hall in Tokyo, on May 4th 1984. Haneda's famous symphony based on the melodies of Yamato has been released a number of different ways, and has the unique honour of receiving not one but TWO separate recordings. The second, a studio recording made in 2009 with the Japan Philharmonic and Naoto Otomo again conducting, is the finest of the two - both in terms of sound and performance quality, but who can resist this premiere performance with the composer himself at the piano?
I consider this Haneda's magnum opus, a very clear sign of his genius, and a poignant reminder of the heights he could have reached had cancer not taken him from us aged only 58.
It is surprisingly uncommon knowledge that this concert was released on VHS and then later on Laserdisc. A transfer appeared on BakaBT in 2012, which was advertised as being a Laserdisc transfer, but sadly it was so poor that even a mediocre VHS transfer would have been preferable. I had always hoped to get hold of a copy of that Laserdisc and find some way to make my own transfer, but that idea was buried very quickly after I discovered, open-mouthed, that a DVD of the concert had been released in 2005.
So, let's get to it. What have you got here, what's different to what you've had before, and why is it better?
The Laserdisc transfer on BakaBT has mono sound - whether that's all that's on the Laserdisc, or something went wrong during the transfer, I couldn't tell you, but the producer tried to compensate by adding a "hiss-reduced" audio track, which is unfortunately worse. A painful and intermittent screeching noise also features.
Within the spoilers, you will find a few comparison screenshots; with my restoration on the left and the BakaBT laserdisc transfer on the right.
The DVD edition does have stereo sound but it's based on the 1985 CD master and that is truly hideous; one of the horrors of the very early CD era bought about, I assume, by immature technology and engineers familiar with analogue recording. The sound passes through a grotesque hall-of-mirrors, changing a dozen times throughout the symphony.
In 2014, the concert was finally remastered from the master tapes.
Now, what you really need is for some enterprising person to get hold of the DVD and the 2014 CD remaster, and somehow combine the two.
Well, that's what I've done.
Unsurprisingly, this task was not as easy in practice as it would appear to be in theory. The CD runs infinitesimally faster than the DVD, so if you line up the tracks in a straightforward manner, synchronisation gradually drifts apart.
Extensive calculations revealed that the CD runs 0.09% faster. I couldn't tell you precisely why this was the case but fortunately the miniscule changes were easy to make; video and audio are now in synchronisation.
The video has undergone some minor tweaking; as one would expect of a production made thirty years ago on analogue videotape for television broadcast, picture quality is rarely ideal. To remedy the situation (at least partially) I have made a slight increase in contrast and drop in brightness, meaning black is now closer to genuine black and not medium-grey. In order to address a strange green-ish tint, I have also done some subtle colour retiming - nudging the hue and increasing the intensity.
Audio is derived from the 2014 "Eternal Edition Sound Almanac" CD release, subtly retimed to fit the video and re-equalised. (The CD features only the music, so the portions of this video that feature speech and applause are the original DVD audio.)
The BakaBT version included subtitles which one could charitably call "rough and ready"; I have very loosely based mine on this translation although I have completely retimed and re-written the text for grammar, clarity, tidiness, and factual accuracy. For example, the subtitles say that Space Battleship Yamato started in 1970, but in fact it started in October 1974. They also indicate that the Yamato franchise turns eleven "today" (May 4th 1984) but according to my mathematics, October 1974 to May 1984 isn't even TEN years. Since I do not speak Japanese, I was working "deaf" so to speak, and I can't verify the accuracy of the translation, but at least it makes sense now and, at the very least, no longer relays completely false information!
Periodically throughout the video, there are cards introducing the performers and scrolls which give their brief biographies. Whilst I cannot translate the text, I contemplated overlaying edited biographies in English, but decided to leave these segments clear.
This is a new upload made on 23rd January 2019. I have retired the "standard" quality version made available on the original 2016 upload. Only the HQ version with FLAC audio remains.
Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy! :)
TT